Meet the Coffee Party USA Newsroom

Have you ever wondered how the Coffee Party Facebook page works? This Join the Coffee Party Movement page has over 1,000,000 followers and shows up in hundreds of thousands of Facebook feeds every day. Some individual posts get thousands of shares and hundreds of comments. For many people, the Facebook page is their first introduction to The Coffee Party USA.

Join the Coffee Party Movement page (JTCPM) is one of the work groups for Coffee Party. The volunteer team that comprises this work group is called the Newsroom. A dozen different editors serve together in the Newsroom to keep the Facebook page hopping with posts scheduled every hour on the hour 24/7.

The Newsroom team is a diverse group of bloggers and newshounds who write original content and/or circulate interesting articles about the current world and our social and political life together as global citizens. Our diversity is intentional; we reflect the diversity of our readers and we seek to offer a variety of perspectives and opinions in our JTCPM articles. What unites us is our shared commitment to the Coffee Party mission, goals and values.

Like many other public Facebook pages, JTCPM is open to comments from anyone who wants to have their say. Most of our commenters do a great job of discussing controversial issues with civility and respectful conversation. As editors, it is our job to moderate the comments and hide or delete those that do not meet the civility code posted at the top of the Facebook page. Occasionally we will ban a commenter who persists in making rude, insulting or hurtful remarks to other commenters.

We invite you to participate in the Facebook page conversations, help us model respectful dialogue and let us know when you see comments that are inappropriate. We want this JTCPM page to function as a positive influence within the larger American conversation.

Join the Coffee Party Movement Conversation Guidelines

The Basics

Keep your posts on topic and constructive

Take responsibility for the quality of the conversations you take part in

Don’t attack people and don’t respond to attacks – move on

Respect others and their opinions.

Abide by our Coffee Party Civility Pledge when posting to the JTCPM page

As a member or supporter of the Coffee Party, I pledge to conduct myself in a way that is civil, honest, and respectful toward people with whom I disagree. I value people from different cultures, I value people with different ideas, and I value and cherish the democratic process.

Be considerate

We’re here to talk about ideas, not the people behind them.

We’ll delete: personal attacks directed at anyone, comments we believe exist only to provoke or mislead, and comments that are commercial or link to any candidate’s official website.

Be respectful

Treat people with the respect you’d like to receive. You’ll come across opinions you disagree with; that doesn’t make them invalid. Comments like: “You’re an idiot…” or “you’re stupid…” will be deleted. “Have you considered…” won’t be.

Be on-topic

Keep comments relevant to the article and replies relevant to the initiating post. We reserve the right to delete off-topic comments to keep threads on track.

Be proactive

Take responsibility for the quality of the conversations you participate in; only reply to things you consider worth your attention.

What we’ll do

We reserve the right to remove comments that breach our standards and ban commenters who breach them repeatedly.

Jeanene Louden is the Work Group Chair for our Facebook page and the editors who make up the Newsroom. She divides her time between the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. She serves as the Coffee Party Vice President and Director of Membership Administration. She has been helping shape this grassroots movement since its earliest days and was called to activism by Dr. King and the civil rights movement in the 60s. Her personal mission is to support citizen participation by helping others connect the dots between political mischief and money in politics. J’nene hosts one of our excellent Coffee Party radio shows, Lunch with Louden.

Charlotte Vaughan Coyle serves as interim president and director of Member Affairs for Coffee Party USA. Her personal blog explores Intersections between faith, culture and politics and she often offers this perspective to the Coffee Party page. She is a retired minister living in small town East Texas and secretary of Coffee Party USA.

Egberto Willies serves on the Coffee Party Board of Directors as liaison to the JTCPM Facebook page. His personal blog operates with the understanding that “political involvement should be a requirement for citizenship.” His radio show, Politics Done Right, is broadcast from radio station KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston, Texas and on Facebook LIVE. It is also offered as one of our Coffee Party radio shows. He also serves on the board of Indivisible Houston.

Debilyn Molineaux is a transformation partner, located in Portland, OR. She works with visionaries and movements in support of a new national and global social contract focused on personal dignity and sovereignty. Her work highlights the relationships between individuals, institutions, and governments for conscious transformation. She is the Managing Partner for Living Room Conversations, past President of Coffee Party USA and Co-Director for Bridge Alliance, representing micro to macro to system approaches.

Bobby Rodrigo serves on the Board as Director of Internet Infrastructure and Director of Security and coordinates Coffee Party Radio Shows. He is a full-time advocate/activist/legal professional and has been for many years. He has a wide range of interests. “I Take Liberty with My Coffee” is the name of his personal blog and his weekly radio show. Bobby is Legal and Operations Director for Tax Revolution Institute Inc. He also writes for many media outlets including The Fifth Column, and Anti-Media. He is a long-time business owner and holds degrees in Business Law and Paralegal Studies. Bobby is also a veteran and a single parent. Bobby is currently involved in two new projects called "Behind the Smoke" and "The Best Interests of the Child". Bobby is anti-partisan and would like to walk in a voting booth and not see a party affiliation next to any candidate’s name. He also believes in open ballot access for any candidate and party as well as independents.

Vince Lamb serves on the Board and oversees the partnerships that Coffee Party forges with various other activist organizations. He is a professor of biology and geology at a Michigan community college and a passionate environmental activist. His personal blog reflects his interests in science, technology, environment, politics, science fiction, and music.

Elisabeth Parker serves as Volunteer Coordinator for the JTCPM Editors Newsroom. Her personal blog is distributed on several popular activist websites and her writing gets quite a bit of attention on several news outlets. Elisabeth currently lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Austin Wykes received his degree in Political Science and has been volunteering with Coffee Party since 2015. Besides contributing articles of interest to JTCPM, Austin also contributes to The Mighty. His areas of interest include civil rights, human rights, and politics.

Victoria M. Young is a veterinarian living in Idaho. She is passionate for quality education and, while working on her PhD, blogs from her personal website, The Crucial Voice. As Victoria describes herself: “I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I do not stand on either a pure Progressive or Traditionalist education ideology. I stand on the principles of equality through equal access to quality education for all children.”

Sean Conners is a long time activist and blogger who helped create the news site American News X and now works as their Managing Editor. He lives in Delaware.

Currently On Leave from the Newsroom:

Amy Harth works as a Research Analyst and has held a variety of positions in higher education administration. She currently is pursuing her PhD in African Studies. Amy’s personal blog, The Practical Academic, offers a wise and intimate look into living well amidst all sorts of challenges. Her professional website is a resource for educators called Media Savvy: In an Age of Alternate Facts and Fake News. She lives in Overland Park KS.

Victoria Olson raised in NYC, lived in Chicago for many years, now hails from southwest Florida, where she enjoys retirement, and stays busy online as senior admin of a large Rachel Maddow Fans FB group. Victoria recently retired from a 30+ year career as a computer network administrator and certified project manager, as both an employee and consultant with her own firm. She’s been involved in activism since the mid-1960s for civil, human and women’s rights, peace, and the environment.

Marianne Castiglia lives in Florida and has been volunteering for Coffee Party and the Newsroom since 2012. She led the Newsroom as Work Group Chair and was named Volunteer of the Month in 2013.